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Obama’s greatest strength as a candidate, aside from his oratorical skill, has long been his apparent sincerity and decency. Voters attracted to him think of him as that rarest of things: an honest politician. He has claimed himself that he would never engage in the sort of deceptive politicking that he says has tainted Washington for so long.
Yet here he is violating his own professed standards. This is not the Barack Obama so many voters in New Hampshire and elsewhere thought they knew. But it is the real Barack Obama. For despite his rhetoric, he is in fact campaigning so dishonestly that even The Washington Post and The New York Times have called him on it. Which means that he is in practice no different from those regular politicians against whom his entire campaign has been built.
The malignant aspect of this is that Mr. Obama and his advisers know exactly what they are doing. They had to listen to both monologues or read the transcripts. They then had to pick the particular excerpts they used in order to create a commercial of distortions. Their hoped-for result is to inflame racial tensions. In doing this, Mr. Obama and his advisers have demonstrated a pernicious contempt for American society.
Mr. McCain certainly uses his bully pulpit to proselytize Americans about public service. But he more or less stops there, even repeatedly cautioning during the Columbia forum against federalizing public service, although that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t throw taxpayer money at some of his pet service projects. However, his Web site offers nothing near what Mr. Obama is proposing.
. . . Mr. Obama would create several new corps of his own: a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students in underperforming schools; a Health Corps for underserved areas; a Clean Energy Corps to weatherize homes and promote energy independence. The last is separate from his Global Energy Corps, to promote low-carbon energy solutions in developing countries.
Mr. Obama calls all this his “Plan for Universal and Voluntary Citizen Service.” It might live up to its “universal” billing, given that it would prod Americans of all age groups — from preteens to retirees — to sign up. But as to its voluntariness, the plan will make generous use of Uncle Sam’s money — and muscle. . .
The real issue is why Mr. Obama thinks it is necessary to take such extraordinary steps to push all Americans into service. Americans every year contribute close to $300 billion out of their own pockets to charities at home and abroad. This is the highest of any nation — seven times more than Germans and 14 times more than Italians per capita. Americans are equally generous with their time. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service — a federal agency — last year Americans volunteered 8.1 billion hours of service valued at $150 billion to community organizations.
Obama’s new politics in action: a new ad mocking McCain in part because he doesn’t know how to use email. Turns out he can’t because his POW injuries prevent from using a keyboard.
It appears that Obama supporters are truly enthused by his candidacy and are opening their wallets to show it. Meanwhile, Utah Republicans may be suffering donation fatigue from their heavy contributions to favorite-son Mitt Romney — and have not been so free-flowing with cash to McCain after he beat Romney.
Q. At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?
A. Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.
However, Sen. Obama’s attempt to side-step an issue that many Americans take very seriously didn’t work. (Note how he short-circuited the intent of the question by draining it of politics and converting it into a religious and scientific issue?) Obama then cut off any follow-up with the perfunctory recognition that “there is a moral and ethical content to this issue” (thanks!) and went on to expound the typical pro-choice line.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no official position on the moment that human life begins.
Although, I am more comfortable with Sen. McCain’s view that life begins at conception, it’s a matter of fact that our limited knowledge prevents us from saying for sure when life begins in the womb. But that uncertainty should make our approach to abortion all the more definite.
Sen. Obama pretends to defer to God, but as a state and U.S. Senator he has demonstrated that he either has definite views on when life begins or that he simply doesn’t care. He has a record of consistently opposing any restrictions on abortion, including defeating a bill that would have required medical attention for infants born alive during an abortion. Either way, he certainly doesn’t want to talk about it and yet, he has no qualms implementing policies that show a complete disregard for unborn life.
I think he needed to be more specific on that. I happen to disagree with Barack on that. Like I said, he’s a friend.
But to me, I would not want to die and get before God one day and go, ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t take the time to figure out’ because if I was wrong then it had severe implications to my leadership if I had the ability to do something about it.
He should either say, ‘No scientifically, I do not believe it’s a human being until X’ or whatever it is or to say, ‘Yes, I believe it is a human being at X point,’ whether it’s conception or anything else. But to just say ‘I don’t know’ on the most divisive issue in America is not a clear enough answer for me.
Obama wrongly claimed that abortions “have not gone down” under President Bush. In fact, the abortion rate has gone down 9 percent, and the annual total has declined by more than 100,000.
Below is a smaller version, only considering the LDS vote. Unlike other faiths, there was only 2006 election data for LDS voters (the sample map below says 2004, but the home site says its 2006) . I suppose its a good sign that while only 2% of the electorate is LDS, its vote is now starting to be measured.
Fiddling with the LDS vote below, you can see that if the LDS vote went 100% GOP (instead of the 80% it appears to be), then it would help Sen. McCain claim New Mexico. On the flip side, if the LDS vote went 100% Democrat, it would gain Utah, Nevada, and Oregon for Sen. Obama.
The Mormon vote is not a powerful voting bloc but it is interesting to see how it can influence the election in specific states.
You can go to the site’s home page to also see how race and gender demographics figured in the elections and adjust them to forecast how 2008 may play out.
As young marrieds, Barack and Michelle (who also didn’t go to church regularly as a child) went to church fairly often-two or three times a month. But after their first child, Malia, was born, they found making the effort more difficult. “I don’t know if you’ve had the experience of taking young, squirming children to church, but it’s not easy,” he says. “Trinity was always packed, and so you had to get there early. And if you went to the morning service, you were looking at-it just was difficult. So that would cut back on our involvement.”
Archuleta, meanwhile, is a 17-year-old fuddy-duddy from Utah who grew up singing show tunes and Elton John . . . I’ve always imagined him as home-schooled but I have no evidence, outside his large family and unyouthful musical tastes. A Los Angeles Times blog suspected he skipped the first verse of “Imagine” on Idol because he’s a Mormon and would take offense at the line about “no religion.” I think of him more as a Mitt Romney-type—weekly transmitting secret religious messages only his fellow conservative Christians would pick up. Every week I scrutinized his song choices and his outfit, and quizzed no one in particular: Why did he choose Neil Diamond’s patriotic song “Coming to America”? Why does he have a huge anchor sewn onto his jacket? Is there some Jesus parable about an anchor?
I haven’t watched AI but it sounds like a LOT of reading between the lines is going on here. Makes me wonder who really belongs to the reality-based community.
McCain, the GOP’s presumptive nominee, was the choice of 65 percent of those polled over Clinton, and 62 percent when matched up against Obama. That’s a big change from February, when McCain mustered support from only 30 percent of Utahns surveyed.
The idea that a candidate should be grilled for views of other people in his church hasn’t been commonplace in the Democratic party for tens of thousands of minutes, since Mitt Romney suspended his campaign.
Read the rest of the comment for other excellent points on how crazy this campaign has been so far (only six months left to go!).
But Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion. And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not want his daughters to be “punished with a baby” because of a crisis pregnancy — hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life . . .
Having endorsed partial-birth abortion, Obama has little room to maneuver on the broader issue. But he does have some. He could take the wise counsel of evangelical Democrats such as Amy Sullivan and come out strongly for policies that would reduce the number of abortions — support for pregnant women, abstinence education, the responsible promotion of birth control. An organization called Democrats for Life has proposed the creation of a “95-10 Initiative” in which states and the federal government would work toward the reduction of abortion rates by 95 percent within 10 years. That would be a unifying national goal.
Are typically “true [red], through and through” Mormons going to go blue because their man Mitt was shunned by the GOP?
That’s the wishful thinking that has traveled parts of the Bloggernacle since Mitt Romney ended his campaign last week. And as Sen. Obama has been gaining momentum as the candidate of unity and change, it appears that his personal charm is winning over a lot of unconventional supporters (heck, this former Romney campaigner and Reaganite is now making a case that Catholics should go for Obama)
The Mormon argument for Obama seems to be that since the Republican primaries “rejected” a Mormon candidate, Mormon GOP voters should vent their anger and seek revenge by supporting the Democratic candidate of hope and optimism.
Sen. McCain definitely lacks Obama’s charisma and appeal. He hasn’t reached out to Mormons as Obama has. But Republican Mormons are more savvy than to vote Democrat just because they feel the Republican party is dominated by anti-Mormons (which isn’t true). Wouldn’t that be the ugliest form of identity politics?
Unless McCain picks up Huckabee as his VP pick, Utah won’t go blue in November. If McCain does, then let’s talk.
The Politico: “Utah’s Mormons loathe Huckabee.” He can’t get past the perception that he has exploited anti-Mormonism to woo Evangelicals.
Quin Monson, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, says many observers believe that “evangelicals have rejected Romney, and that Huckabee is aiding and abetting that. … He’s egging it on.”
Yeah, but they REALLY don’t like him, and actually have a soft spot for Barack Obama (emphasis mine):
In the deeply red state where President Bush still maintains some of his highest approval ratings, a place that has ranked as the most Republican state in the nation in six of the past eight presidential elections, a BYU poll released Monday reveals that Huckabee would pull off the seemingly impossible.
As GOP nominee, he would lose the state of Utah in a hypothetical matchup with Democrat Barack Obama, 58 percent to 42 percent.
Romney, by contrast, would defeat Obama 69 percent to 31 percent. McCain would also win against Obama, though by a more modest 55 percent to 45 percent.
Still, there are limits to how much Utah dislikes Huckabee: In a head-to-head matchup with Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huckabee wins handily, 60 percent to 41 percent.
Although the Church is neutral in party politics, it is common for political and government leaders to pay brief calls on Church leadership. The half-hour meeting focused mostly on family values.
A busy day at temple sqaure. Plus, Elders Ballard and Cook seem to be the politics/Church public affairs duo of the Twelve.
The Illinois Democrat was scheduled to drop by the state on Saturday for a short appearance in Salt Lake City but his campaign said the visit was off.
“Last night I spoke with President Thomas Monson and expressed my deepest sympathies to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Obama said in a statement. Monson is Hinckley’s likely successor.
Classy but also clever. He can now campaign elswhere as he scrambles to cover as many states as possible before next week’s Super Tueday. Plus he just impressed a ton of Mormon Democrats.
